I recently received an email from a good friend asking me to boycott a particular gasoline company. He read it and thought it made sense and was just passing it along, but when I read it I didn’t think it made so much sense to me.
Let’s begin.
GAS WAR - an idea that WILL work !
This was originally sent by a retired Coca Cola executive It came from one of his engineer buddies who retired from Halliburton. It’s worth your consideration.
Okay, so if we toss out the names of a couple of large corporations people will think this is more legitimate. It’s called name-dropping.
Join the resistance!!!! I hear we are going to hit close to $ 4.00 a gallon by next summer and it might go higher!! Want gasoline prices to come down?
Of course you want gasoline prices to come down. You’re a consumer. Higher gas prices cost you money and lower gas prices save you money.
This is a simple sales technique… one used daily by used car salesmen everywhere. You get the target saying “yes” over and over, to the end that they start finding “yes” easy to say.
We need to take some intelligent, united action. Phillip Hollsworth offered this good idea. This makes MUCH MORE SENSE than the “don’t buy gas on a certain day” campaign that was going around last April or May! The oil companies just laughed at that because they knew we wouldn’t continue to “hurt” ourselves by refusing to buy gas. It was more of an inconvenience to us than it was a problem for them. BUT, whoever thought of this idea, has come up with a plan that can really work. Please read on and join with us!
It’s better, you say? Oh, then it must work! Say… am I the only person who noticed that the first sentence in this paragraph names Phillip Hollsworth as the source, and then the last sentence says whoever thought of this, as if they’d already forgotten? And if Phillip Hollsworth (or whoever) had the idea, why didn’t he send the email? Incidentally, a Google search for Phillip Hollsworth turns up hundreds of sites debunking this email, but no useful information about anyone by that name.
By now you’re probably thinking gasoline priced at about $1.50 is super cheap. Me too! It is currently $3.11 for regular unleaded in my town. Now that the oil companies and the OPEC nations have conditioned us to think that the cost of a gallon of gas is CHEAP at $1.50 - $1.75, we need to take aggressive action to teach them that BUYERS control the marketplace..not sellers. With the price of gasoline going up more each day, we consumers need to take action. The only way we are going to see the price of gas come down is if we hit someone in the pocketbook by not purchasing their gas! And, we can do that WITHOUT hurting ourselves.
Once again, we get people saying yes so they feel like they can relate. We get you agreeing that there is a problem, and then associate turn that problem with oil companies and OPEC nations. The rub is that oil companies and OPEC nations do not set the prices. The price of petroleum is set by commodity traders, speculating on how much crude will be available, and how difficult it will be to obtain. The owners of the pumps we use at filling stations are already controlled by the consumer! Gas stations make more money by charging less, because if you’re charging less, more people will buy from you. And furthermore, when you boycott these stations, the only pocketbook you’re hitting is the owner of that station — the oil companies will just sell their products to someone else.
How? Since we all rely on our cars, we can’t just stop buying gas. But we CAN have an impact on gas prices if we all act together to force a price war. Here’s the idea: For the rest of this year, DON’T purchase ANY gasoline from the two biggest companies (which now are one), EXXON and MOBIL. If they are not selling any gas, they will be inclined to reduce their prices. If they reduce their prices, the other companies will have to follow suit. But to have an impact, we need to reach literally millions of Exxon and Mobil gas buyers. It’s really simple to do!
Flawed logic, that is. If they are not selling any gas, why would they lower prices? It’s not as if it has a short shelf life. Eventually, it will sell — probably when the other stations have run out of gas to sell because of all the former Exxon-Mobil customers coming to them now.
Now, don’t wimp out on me at this point…keep reading and I’ll explain how simple it is to reach millions of people!!
Oh, that’s good. First I make you my friend by getting you to agree with me, and using words like “we” to imply that we’re in this together. Then, I challenge you by saying “don’t wimp out on me”.
I am sending this note to 30 people. If each of us send it to at least ten more (30 x 10 = 300) … and those 300 send it to at least ten more (300 x 10 = 3,000)…and so on, by the time the message reaches the sixth group of people, we will have reached over THREE MILLION consumers.
But, since the population of the USA is more like three hundred million, you’re still only affecting 1% of the population, and that’s if we assume 100% effectiveness. A realist knows, however, that you’re going to have those who don’t send it to 10 people, those who just delete it, those who send it to people outside of the US, and let’s not forget about those who see through this bullshit! In other words, this is never going to make a difference.
If those three million get excited and pass this on to ten friends each, then 30 million people will have been contacted! If it goes one level further, you guessed it….. THREE HUNDRED MILLION PEOPLE!!! Again, all you have to do is send this to 10 people. That’s all! (If you don’t understand how we can reach 300 million and all you have to do is send this to 10 people…. Well, let’s face it, you just aren’t a mathematician. But I am . so trust me on this one.) :-)
Certainly you see that this is a good idea… if not, then you’re just stupid. But if you’re stupid, you can trust me because I’m smart. Right, friend?
How long would all that take? If each of us sends this e-mail out to ten more people within one day of receipt, all 300 MILLION people could conceivably be contacted within the next 8 days!!! I’ll bet you didn’t think you and I had that much potential, did you! Acting together we can make a difference.
That’s right! We can make a difference in the in boxes and spam filters of people everywhere!
If this makes sense to you, please pass this message on. I suggest that we not buy from EXXON/MOBIL UNTIL THEY LOWER THEIR PRICES TO THE $1.30 RANGE AND KEEP THEM DOWN. THIS CAN REALLY WORK.
That seems like a very arbitrary number to me. Why stop there? Why not do it until the price is practically free? Let’s just boycott everybody until they’re forced to give gasoline away? But wait, maybe that would work for other things too! Let’s boycott televisions, and DVDs, and movie theaters… they’re all too expensive in my opinion. And what about cell phones? I think iPods should only cost $40, and I don’t want to pay more than $300 for the latest laptop computer. Boycott everybody!
Now, how about a dose of reality? Rather than an impotent boycott of an insignificant business at the bottom of the food chain in the oil business, I suggest you beat the system. Don’t let rising gas prices cost you money… let them make you money!
I purchased stock in Exxon-Mobile (XOM) one month ago, and have already seen a 5.5% return on my money — more than I would have gotten after one year in today’s best CD or a high-yield savings account. That’s an awesome return, but wait! Why stop there? I invested in BP (BP) three weeks ago and have already realized a 9.6% return — more in three week than I could have earned after two years in any traditional savings method! At that rate, my money could double in one year. Imagine doing that with hundreds, thousands, even tens of thousands of dollars!
My friends, this is just the beginning. If you took the time to read that spam, you’re probably as aware as I am that gas will only continue to get more expensive. So rather than complaining about the rising cost of fuel, why not give yourself a reason to rejoice about it? If you’re not putting every spare penny you have into energy stocks, you’re missing the boat. I recommend Exxon-Mobil, BP, Amerada-Hess (AHC), Neufield Exploration (NFX), Schlumberger (SLB), Halliburton (HAL), and Archer-Daniels Midland (ADM).
May 16th, 2006 at 4:36 am
The following was my response upon receiving the email:
To anyone who received an email urging them to boycott various oil companies (the list seems to change):
The problem with the price of gas is not that it is too high. The problem is that it is much too low.
“Since we all rely on our cars, we can’t just stop buying gas.”
For those of us who live outside large urban centers, this is probably true. But most of us drive cars that are bigger, more powerful, and “sportier” than anything we actually need. Making a responsible car choice would reduce the average drivers’ gasoline costs by half. We also drive more than we need to. By car-pooling, planning our errands in such a way as to require fewer trips, and using public transportation when possible, most of us could cut our transportation budget in half.
Responsible global citizenship requires that we take these steps, to protect a dwindling resource and combat global warming. The fact that so few people are willing, proves that gasoline is still much too cheap.
For the brilliant mathematician, who distributed the original article to “three hundred million people”:
Currently we are exploiting fossil fuels on the premise that the “profits” generated belong to whoever has the means and access to extract raw material and refine it into fuel. But since fossil fuels are non-renewable, this constitutes a form of theft. Explain to your children why they should have to pay ten times more than you did, not only for fuel, but anything that requires fuel in its production and distribution (especially food!). Is this fair and reasonable, simply because we got to the resource first?
Direct costs associated with a rise in the price of oil pale in comparison with the astronomical costs associated with global warming. This burden too is to be borne by future generations, who did not have the benefit of burning the fuel that released the CO2 that caused the warming in the first place.
We live in an age where the continued flow of oil is so vital to our industrialized existence, that we are willing to instigate wars to ensure its continued flow. To date the most recent Iraq war has cost the American taxpayer 280 billion dollars. This too is part of the hidden cost of gasoline. Anyone care to do the math?
This still ignores human cost - one hundred thousand Iraqi civilians and counting.
If the true costs of burning gasoline were factored into its price, a litre would probably fall somewhere between $10 and $100. The reason we can have it for the bargain price of $1.18 is that we are
a) essentially stealing it, and
b) not required to clean up the mess we are making
According to the email I recieved, the fabulous idea to boycott certain oil companies came from a former Halliburton engineer. Ironic if true, considering that Halliburton, a major Republican contributor has profited by hundreds of millions of dollars from the war.
Actually there are plenty of reasons to boycott at least two of the three companies on the list. While I can’t speak for Petro Canada, we do know Shell and Exxon to be two of the worst corporate citizens of all time.
Shell collaborated with a military dictatorship that brutally quashed opposition to environmental destruction, by Shell, in the Nigerian river delta.
Exxon officials have steadfastly maintained that the pursuit of clean energy runs counter to the companies interests.
Sadly there has never been massive public outrage, and consumers have continued to buy from both companies. If these same consumers should now turn against Shell and Exxon for the prospect of saving a few cents at the pump, we will know definitively, that our society is beyond saving.
Respectfully,
Michael Hey
P.S. Your investment strategy seems sound enough. But if you are looking to profit from rising energy costs, why not invest that money in companies that are striving towards a clean alternative?
May 16th, 2006 at 8:02 am
Actually, Michael, I do invest in alternative fuel companies, including Archer-Daniels (ADM) and Pacific Ethanol (PEIX), and those stocks have both performed better than any of my oil stocks. However, I never look a gift horse in the mouth… if we all know gas prices are going up, why not get some money back from the companies that are profiting from it?
February 16th, 2008 at 9:46 am
I think that Michael’s response is a fair comment. We aren’t going to get cheaper oil until we don’t need it; or, at least not so much of it. In other words, until a viable alternative is found. I think this is some way off although ethanol may be a short to medium term solution. As far as Iraq is concerned, I’m pretty sure that if Saddam had been growing carrots and not oil wells, the invasion would still be a long time coming.